The police were clearly willing to do a report if I pushed it, but they were very clear that I'll never see the wallet again. The cop in question was my brother, who's been a cop for over 10 years. I trust his judgement on this.

As far as some of your other points.

I left out a few things that are NOT in my wallet.

I don't carry checks normally. Here's why.
http://www.idtheftcenter.org/Fact-Sheets/fs-126.html

But there's more reasons.

First of all, hardly anyone around here accepts them anymore and I find them to be the least secure payment instrument possible, worse than cash.

The very few times I personally need a check (less than 5 times a year), the payee and usually the amount is filled out before it is carried to the Place That is Stuck in the Dark Ages and Does Not Understand Payment Cards At All (the department of motor vehicles most typically). In no case would I ever carry a blank check around normally.

Not really clear on "claim with insurance company." For what? A $25 wallet? The cash I claim was in it? OK, I could say I had $1,000 in cash in there,I could say $10,000. No sane insurance company will insure cash, police report or not.

All of my cards were killed within 15 minutes, there were no transaction attempts on any of them (I asked). It is FAR simpler to stop a payment card than to deal with a rogue checking account.